Drugs Possession

Mr. Flook:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how many people were (a) arrested and (b) charged with possession of Class (i) A, (ii) B and (iii) C drugs in the West Somerset Division of Avon and Somerset Police in each year since 1997. [73263]

Mr. Bob Ainsworth:
Arrest data are only available centrally for all drug offences as a whole, not for individual types of offences, so it is not possible to provide the level of detail requested. The figures given in the table relate to persons referred to courts in the West Somerset Division by the police for unlawful possession of drugs, and also to those found guilty of such offences.

Table: Number of persons referred to courts for and found

guilty of offences of unlawful possession of drugs, West Somerset,
19972000

1997

1998

1999

2000

Class A

Referred to court

2

4

2

1

Found guilty

2

4

2

1

Class B

Referred to court

1

2

3

2

Found guilty

1

2

3

2

Class C

Referred to court

0

0

0

0

Found guilty

0

0

0

0

Source:

Drugs and Alcohol Research

Drug Dealing (Lambeth)

Simon Hughes:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how many arrests have been made in Lambeth for (a) dealing in cannabis and (b) dealing in class A drugs in each of the last 12 months for which figures are available. [73218]

Mr. Bob Ainsworth:
The information requested is in the tables. It has been provided by the Commissioner of Police of the Metropolis.

Table 1: Number of arrests made in Lambeth for dealing in cannabis

Month

Unlawful importation

Possession with intent to supply unlawfully

Unlawful supply

Total

July 2001

0

3

0

3

August 2001

0

6

3

9

September 2001

0

6

3

9

October 2001

0

3

2

5

November 2001

0

3

0

3

December 2001

0

2

2

4

January 2002

0

4

1

5

February 2002

0

5

2

7

March 2002

0

3

1

4

April 2002

0

0

2

2

May 2002

0

5

1

6

June 2002

0

5

3

8

Total

0

45

20

65

Source:

Metropolitan Police Service.

19 Sept 2002 : Column 67W

Table 2: Total of arrests made in Lambeth for dealing in Class A drugs

Month

Unlawful importation

Possession with intent to supply unlawfully

Unlawful supply

Total

July 2001

0

4

41

45

August 2001

0

3

6

9

September 2001

0

3

4

7

October 2001

0

4

3

7

November 2001

0

7

1

8

December 2001

0

7

2

9

January 2002

0

7

1

8

February 2002

0

9

2

11

March 2002

0

12

8

20

April 2002

0

5

2

7

May 2002

2

5

34

41

June 2002

0

10

7

17

Total

2

76

111

189

Source:

Metropolitan Police Service.

Immigration and Nationality Directorate

Virginia Bottomley:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what steps he is taking to improve the service for people who attempt to use the Immigration and Nationality Directorate hotline. [72403]

Beverley Hughes:
In the last six months, calls answered by the Immigration and Nationality Enquiry Bureau have increased by a third resulting in an average in excess of 21,000 calls a week. This has been attributed to the introduction of new staff (brought in via a regular recruitment programme) and to the new computerised telephone system, which is helping to manage the queues more effectively by giving the answers to commonly asked questions whilst callers are queuing.

Virginia Bottomley:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how many registered letters have been lost when sent out from the Immigration and Nationality Directorate in Croydon in the last 12 months. [72402]

Beverley Hughes:
Over the period June 2001 to June 2002, 119 claims for compensation were made against the Royal Mail for Recorded Delivery items sent out by the Immigration and Nationality Directorate in Croydon, but not delivered.

Terrorism

Mr. Tynan:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what assessment he has made of the ethical guidelines that will be followed in respect of co-operation with EU National Anti-Terrorist Evaluation Teams. [72159]

Mr. Blunkett:
Article 6 of the draft EU Council Decision for establishing a mechanism for evaluating the legal systems and their implementation at national level in the fight against terrorism (8811/2/02) states that the visits of the evaluation teams established under the Decision would be arranged by the Member State. Any visits arranged to the United Kingdom would be entirely in accordance with longstanding policy and codes of behaviour in relation to matters of national security and

19 Sept 2002 : Column 68W

our national law, including the Official Secrets Act 1989. Article 9 of the draft Decision requires the evaluation teams to respect the confidentiality of any information they receive in connection with their task.

Child Pornography

Mr. Wray:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what recent discussions he has had with his European counterparts regarding tackling the distribution of child pornography on a European-wide scale; and what proposals were examined. [72526]

Mr. Hilary Benn:
Member States of the European Union have been negotiating since January 2000 on a draft Framework Decision concerning the harmonisation of national laws in respect of the sexual exploitation of children and child pornography. The Instrument will require Member States to adopt common definitions and minimum penalties in relation to the possession, acquisition, production and distributing of child pornography. It has been on the agenda for discussion at JHA Councils on 2728 September and 67 December 2001; and 2526 April and 1314 June 2002.

On-line child pornography was also discussed at the meeting of G8 Justice and Interior Ministers in May. Ministers commissioned the relevant experts to: explore the creation of an international database to help locate victims and identified and apprehend perpetrators; and to implement a G8 strategy involving improved international co-operation; prevention; strengthened co-operation among law enforcement, industry, and civil society groups; public awareness; and outreach to other countries.

Mr. Wray:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how many people have been convicted of producing and possessing child pornography in the last year for which figures are available. [72523]

Hilary Benn:
Convictions for producing child pornography are not directly identifiable on the Home Office Court Proceedings database.

The available information relates to possessing, taking or making indecent photographs, or pseudo-photographs, of children under the Protection of Children Act 1978 and the Criminal Justice Act 1988 or for possessing obscene material for gain under the Obscene Publications Act 1959.

This is contained in the table and relates to England and Wales in 2000.

Statistics for 2001 will be available in the autumn.

Number of persons convicted at all courts for offences relating to pornography England and Wales 2000 1 .,2 .OffenceStatute

Take or to make indecent photographs, or pseudo-photographs,
of children

Protection of Children Act 1978 Sections 1, 6 as amended by the Criminal Justice and Public Order Act 1994 Sec. 84

218

Possession of an indecent photograph, or pseudo-

photograph, of a child

Criminal Justice and Public Order Act 1988 Sec. 160 as amended by the Criminal Justice and Public Order Act 1994 Secs. 84 (4) and 86 (1)

77

1 . These data are on the principal offence basis.

2 . Staffordshire Police Force were only able to supply a sample of data for magistrates' courts proceedings covering one full week in each quarter of 2000. Although sufficient to estimate higher orders of data, these data are not robust at a detailed level and so are excluded from this analysis.

19 Sept 2002 : Column 69W

Mr. Wray:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what measures have been taken since 1997 to prevent the distribution of child pornography. [72522]

Hilary Benn:
The Government is determined to tackle child pornography whether on or off line and the criminal law applies equally to both.

In January 2001 we raised the maximum penalties for taking, making, distributing or showing indecent photographs or pseudo-photographs of children to 10 years imprisonment (from three years), and the maximum penalty for simple possession of such material to five years (from six months). Also in 2001 we made the importation of indecent or obscene material a serious arrestable offence to allow Customs and Excise officers and the police greater powers in investigating child pornography offences.

In response to concerns about the availability of child pornography on the Internet, a hotline for reporting this and other potentially illegal material was established by the Internet Watch Foundation (IWF) an industry funded organisation, in December 1996. Since its inception over 40,000 items of child pornography have been removed by Internet Service Providers (ISPs) in response to the notice and take down procedure. The IWF also sends details to the police, or, since the majority of child pornography originates outside the United Kingdom, to the enforcement agency of the country concerned, via the National Criminal Intelligence Service (NCIS). In February 2002, the IWF extended its policy, recommending to ISPs that they do not carry newsgroups which have been identified as regularly hosting child pornography or those with names that appear to advertise child pornography.

In November 2000, my right hon. Friend the Home Secretary, announced a £25 million investment in the police over three years specifically to fight hi-tech crime and to enhance the capability of the police at a national and local level to investigate computer related offences, including the possession and distribution of illegal pornography. This included the setting up last year of a National High Tech Crime Unit within the National Crime

19 Sept 2002 : Column 70W

Squad as a centre of excellence, which has already mounted a number of investigations in this area, as well as providing support to investigations let by other forces.

Mr. Wray:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how many officers work in the UK special paedophile unit; what their annual budget is; and what plans he has to increase staff and resources. [72525]

Mr. Denham:
Each United Kingdom police force is individually responsible for the investigation of such crimes within its own area and most have their own specialist units. In addition the National Criminal Intelligence Service (NCIS) provides support through the provision of intelligence by its Serious Sex Offenders Unit, which has eight staff and a budget of £370,000 per annum and the National Crime Squad and National High Tech Crime Unit carry out operations and provide assistance to other forces.

Allocation of resources now and in the future for the investigation of paedophile crime is a matter for individual Chief Officers of Police.